THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY S AND SHEREADS BOOKS TO READ AFTER THE HANDMAID S TALE An Electrifying Debut O, The Oprah Magazine The Real Life Parallels Will Make You Shiver CosmopolitanSet In A United States In Which Half The Population Has Been Silenced, Vox Is The Harrowing, Unforgettable Story Of What One Woman Will Do To Protect Herself And Her Daughter.On The Day The Government Decrees That Women Are No Longer Allowed Than One Hundred Words Per Day, Dr Jean McClellan Is In Denial This Can T Happen Here Not In America Not To Her.Soon Women Are Not Permitted To Hold Jobs Girls Are Not Taught To Read Or Write Females No Longer Have A Voice Before, The Average Person Spoke Sixteen Thousand Words Each Day, But Now Women Have Only One Hundred To Make Themselves Heard.For Herself, Her Daughter, And Every Woman Silenced, Jean Will Reclaim Her Voice This Is Just The Beginningnot The End One Of Good Morning America S Best Books To Bring To The Beach This Summer One Of PopSugar, Refinery29, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Real Simple, I09, And S Best Books To Read In August 2018

I have decided to add a disclaimer to my review The review in it s entirely is below in the spoiler tag Here are my reasons for the disclaimer I knew that this would be controversial as it touches on a hot button topic But, responses have become uncomfortable to the point I cringe when I open Goodreads I know, I know, what did I expect sharing a controversial opinion on social media Yeah, I admit I guess I should have seen that coming But, this review simply shares my opinion on a topic I felt was key to the story Many people agree, many people don t That is fine All opinions welcome I just don t want to fight about it because I have no desire to change anyone s opinion I have received negative feedback from both sides of my argument That s right, I picked a hot button topic and managed to annoy people on both sides that is pretty impressive I have been told that I missed the point, I am dense, I have lost respect from people, I think I am better than others, etc I have been unfriended and unfollowed by many That was 100% not my intention and I want it to stop In fact, the point of my opinion is that discussions on this topic drives people apart and causes people to hate each other So, the fact that my review is only promoting negative behavior in some cases is sad to me I am okay with all the 5 star reviews of this book I am glad many people had a better experience with it than I did I do not go to the 5 star reviews and try to prove them wrong Goodreads is all about differing opinions and I embrace that You may notice that this review has lots of comments If you have a criticism of my review, it most likely been discussed ad nauseum so I encourage you to look through the comments first That I missed the point , The book did not say All people of a certain group , Don t you understand what the political climate is in America right now , etc all have been covered At one point in my review I make a bold statement using the number 99%, after the response I have received from both sides, that number is probably like 75%So, feel free to read the review I am not trying to change anyone s mind I am just trying to express my opinion as thoroughly as possible, and if you don t agree that is fine The point of my review is to help stop hate, hurt, and bias, so I do not want my review to contribute to that in any way view spoiler Controversial review time Grab the popcorn and settle in .First of all, many thanks to the Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review I am just sorry that my review does not end up being positive I think this book is dangerous I think the ideas in it are inflammatory and will unnecessarily pit good people against each other If the book has only moderate success, then maybe crisis will be averted But, if it is embraced, I think there are a lot of misconceptions in it that could be destructive to our society And, goodness knows that society doesn t need any help with that right now I am seeing some positive pre release reviews, many of which praise the cautionary tale within, and that scares me It scares me a lot I love dystopian fiction This book really made me think about why I love dystopian fiction The what ifs that drive this genre and the potential evils haunting our current society that could lead to its downfall are fascinating Corrupt politicians, radical ideals, oppression, crazy religious zealots, diseases, zombies all are interesting to think about Sometimes the books are tongue in cheek about the cause with caricatures of current leaders or allegories of dangerous political ideals Also, we frequently see books where the dystopian isn t even fully explained I am trying to remember if they even ever tell us why everything happened in the world of the Hunger Games we know the end result, but I don t think they ever give us the specifics.So, the fact that this book made me think about why I love dystopian fiction made me realize why I did not like this book and its dangerous message Usually the causes are hinted at or left to be guessed about Hunger Games , represented in a thought provoking way allegories like Animal Farm , or just downright out of our control disease and zombies This book just straight up says that Christians and Christianity are to blame I would like to say that it is just hinted at, or at least it is a combination of events in addition to crazy religious leaders that leads to the horribly oppressive society within But, the author straight up comes out a blames Christianity, quotes scripture, and repeatedly brings it back to the forefront And, throughout she does not say it is some Christians, or a few wacko Christians, it is ALL CHRISTIANS and they are than happy to take over the country and silence Women and send non straight people to camps where they are forced into heterosexual relationships At one point she even hints the next step is that anyone who is not white will be oppressed and sent to the camps as well.Whew I need a moment to re wrap my brain around that and explain a few things .I have known a lot of you for several years here on Goodreads and I believe I represent myself as open and fair I like to read almost any type of book I have friends on here and in real life who are women, men, gay, straight, black, Asian, Hispanic, etc I have befriended many people who are agnostic, atheist, Christian, Muslim, etc I believe all my conversations with everyone are pleasant and I do not try and force who I am on any one I just share who I am and let others decide how they feel about me.Well, I am a Christian I do my best to go to church every week and I enjoy reading the bible I have never met a Christian who wants to oppress people the way they do in this book We have a variety of races of people who attend our church I am not sure that I know any gay people who are Christian, and I can see why that might be, but I hold no ill will towards anyone because of their sexual preference or gender status If anyone wanted to talk to me about Christianity, I would do so with an open and friendly heart and not desire them to be oppressed in any way for not being just like me I truly believe that 99% of all Christians are like me In this day and age, it is the controversial Christians who get all the publicity It s the keyboard warriors who feel like they should post nasty comments on every internet article and tweet that they consider Unchristian It s the awful people with hateful signs protesting the funerals of our servicemen It s the white supremacist rallies where the men hide behind the cross like God agrees with the hate they spew The internet and media love to focus on hate and people treating each other poorly If one crazy Christian kills someone it will be remembered much than a church that raises money and takes donations to feed and clothe 5000 people I could have been behind this book if it was blamed on a few religious extremists who managed to take over the government there are definitely religious extremists out there that would love to do that and oppress lots of people I do not argue that But, it really isn t presented as a few bad apples There are mentions of expanding Christian communities taking over and forcing people to follow their ways I will say that I can definitely see people having that fear with the way Christians are presented debates on TV Creation vs Science, protesters claiming they know who God Hates , bad people hiding behind prayers and crosses But with this book saying it is all Christians and getting reviews from people thinking that it is a cautionary tale worth considering, again, it scares me.I ask you this, and you might say that I am being too extreme here, but how would you respond if the plot of a dystopian book was identical to this but it was an extreme Christian blaming homosexuals or a extreme right winger blaming people who are not white It would be panned It would be destroyed by critics and the author trashed on Twitter As a Christian, this is how this book makes me feel I mentioned earlier that I have tried my best to be a good person, a reasonable thinker, and a supportive friend to all people I meet so, should I be okay with it when a book attacks an important part of me and blames it for the potential downfall of society As a book, it was okay I probably would have gone 3 stars if it was not for my concerns above The end felt kind of rushed and convenient sort of Deus ex Machina which is ironic since Deus means God Up until the last 50 pages or so, the plot development seemed somewhat reasonable and then it just got kind of crazy Also, I found all the main characters to be unlikable throughout Sometimes unlikable works when that is the point, but I don t think they were supposed to be unlikable in this context.Maybe the author will read my review and think, That was not my intention at all And, if she does and contacts me I will be happy to discuss it with an open mind and an open heart I hold her no ill will and I think doing so would be un Christian of me If anything, I would like to show her that Christians are reasonable and friendly people don t let the few bad apples who get all the screen time cause you to group us together with them hide spoiler

Ohh, this was bad Terribly, terribly disappointing.The premise is really intriguing and I would love to read about it in a BETTER book I expected a good dystopian set up that deals with sexism. What I got is a weird thriller that KIND OF addressed that topic At least it pretended to.First of all, the showdown was way too fast and there was little to no build up at all It was unrealistic and everything was solved way too easily I didn t even really understand what was going on because it was so quick and all over the place The characters were boring and completely flat This definitely should be a book that goes into depth with the feelings and thoughts of its characters, but it failed big time But what annoyed me the most was the or less subtle sexism towards men Hey, I totally understand that one would start to despise the other gender if it was the reason for why you re being oppressed and not allowed to talk or work But that wasn t really the case here It were things like he s not a real man because he wouldn t beat up someone for spitting on his car or All boys like to blow things up Wtf Imagine a man would say Oh you re not a real woman because you don t wear makeup or All girls like to play with dolls EVERYONE WOULD LOSE THEIR SHIT Which is something they should do, because it s bullshit but don t do the exact same thing to the opposite gender then Double standards are really stupid Seriously Please stop spoiler ahead PS Someone pointed out to me that in the end A MAN comes and saves the day How weird is that in a book that s about feminism and empowerment of women

Honestly, Jacko You re getting hysterical about it Her words flew at me like poisoned arrows Well, someone needs to be hysterical around here I am absolutely blown away My heart and soul are just dangling by a thread Honestly, I have not been this angered and wonderfully angered in a long, long time Think about what you need to do to stay free. Denial, deliberation and the decisive moment three response stages to any impending disaster Rush through the first two and act as soon as you can That s how you hold out That s how you live.Dr Jean McClellan, an American linguistic scientist and mother of four, saw all the signs women representation decreasing in the government, the resurgence of the pure religion, the slow chipping away at female freedoms yet she did nothing You have no idea ladies No goddamned idea We re on a slippery slide to prehistory girls Think about itThink about words like spousal permission and paternal consent Think about waking up one morning and finding you don t have a voice in anything No matter how much her friends warned and pleaded with her, she always found a way to deny their concerns surely not America, surely the government wouldn t go that far, somebody will definitely do something before it s too lateright Then, she found herself without a voice at all Courtesy of the Pure religious movement all women were fitted with a little bracelet which functioned as a word counter Every day they received 100 words and severe consequences followed every infraction.Jean, as linguistic specialist, knows better than anyone what will happen if a child is denied language or an adult is forced to stifle all forms of communication But without a voice for herself, how can she even begin I read every last word in a single sitting If you thought the The Handmaid s Tale was great you need to check out this modern upheaval.This is the kind of book where you literally feel the tension my heart was pounding, my eyes blurred, I turned the pages so fast that I felt a slight breeze You know babe, sometimes I wonder if it was better when you didn t talk Shivers Oh the many shivers With many, many thanks to Berkley Publishing and the Christina Dalcher for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review All quotes are from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change upon publishing.Blog Instagram Twitter

Maybe this is how it happened in Germany with the Nazis, in Bosnia, with the Serbs, in Rwanda with the Hutus I ve often wondered about that, how kids can turn into monsters, how they can learn that killing is right and oppression is just, how in one single generation the world can change on its axis into a place that is unrecognizable Easily, I think, and push out of my chair Words matter If your ideal of womanhood tends toward the Stepford ish, Vox will present an image of paradise For the rest of us, it offers a dark vision of a possible future in which the lines between religion of the extremist, fundamentalist sort, and government are not just blurred, but erased See Taliban, ISIS, or any of many Christian sects that insist that civil law should be based on the Bible God knows there are plenty of places in the USA where a large number of folks would be just fine with that, as long as it is the proper religion Well, probably not the majority of the women Instead of the saying Children should be seen but not heard, substitute females of almost any age for children, and you have the core of this dystopian novel Christina Dalcher image is from her siteWoody Allen s 1971 film, Bananas, satirized Central American and American politics A deranged leader had let power go to his head and decided to shake things up From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish Silence In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half hour Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check There are different lunatics in charge in Vox, but the restrictions are just as insane, if much less amusing Females are allowed only one hundred words per day The official language of American women is silence And they will have to wear wrist band counters that keep track Exceeding the daily quota results in a painful electrical shock Run off at the mouth and the punishment becomes deadly Girls at school are given rewards for speaking the fewest words in a day Image from HuffPoJean McLellan is a cognitive linguist She is as shocked as most are by the imposition of outrageous strictures on her, and on all females Makes it tough not only to do the work for which she was trained, or, maybe not, as women have been relegated to homemaking, so don t worry your pretty little head about that whole job thing but makes it a challenge even to carry on normal human conversations within her family Her husband, Patrick, is the science advisor to the president, surely a jokey position in a country where science is silenced and faith of a certain sort is given all the bullhorns But then Jean is approached by representatives of El Presidente Her professional services are required It seems the dear leader s brother had an oopsy while skiing and now has a particularly nasty brain injury, one that impacts his ability to use language Jean negotiates a deal, and goes to work Complications ensue, not least is the presence on the research team of the incompetent rectum who stepped up to leadership when the women were kicked out, and someone from her past Will they be able to use their scientific super powers for the forces of good, or be bested by the forces of evil Image from MissMuslim.comYes, it is not a realistic projection of things to come If millions of women marched in response to the election of Swamp Thing, I seriously doubt that a program like the one presented here would have been instituted as quickly as this one was, or at all well, in most states, anyway The response would, I expect, have been less Lysistrata and Wonder Woman, with maybe a dose of Medea tossed in Despite the excesses of our current administration, there are limits beyond which people actually would respond, and actively resist But the point of the novel is not, clearly, to present a real potential future, but to highlight the importance of speech, of language in personal and political freedom, particularly for women.Image from Betanews.comThese are notions that merit consideration Schools in Vox are made to offer AP Religious Studies classes that not only crowd out class time for Biology and History, but omit the comparative element of the study of religions in favor of promoting the religious track favored by those in charge So, propaganda This is hardly a huge leap from school systems that insist on teaching that lovely oxymoron, creation science, alongside actual, reality based, testable science, and pretending equivalence Similar to the approach of some news providers who seem to think that balance consists of offering equal time to truth tellers and liars Linguistics Language Call bullshit a rose often enough and weak minded people will begin to enjoy the scent Fake news We live in a NewSpeakian world, so looking at the power of language, or words and how they are used and controlled offers considerable insight into the non science fiction reality we currently inhabit It is also of note how those words and notions are so often internalized I d been fighting to keep the weight down ever since my last pregnancy. It seems the norm, sadly, for those in power to want to silence those who object, whatever their gender Colin Kaepernick knows, and I remember well the cries of Vietnam war supporters who regarded opposition as treason America, love it or leave it Image from Yomyomf.comDalcher offers examples of how language denigrates women in common parlance, without getting all, you know, hormonal about it Jean s husband refers to her outings with friends as hen parties Her son, Steven, sees an activist on television protesting the demise of freedom and suggests She needs to pop a chill pill Familiar, no The religious nuts running this show incorporate anti gay bias into their new world order as well, making what they consider aberrant behavior a criminal act stifling half the population would not be considered aberrant here Back in the real world, as of 2014 there were still 17 states in which laws against certain sorts of sex by consenting adults were still on the books, so this is not even a small stretch The chastity movement in the book is based on real world insanity as well There was a late 19th century early 20th century movement in America called the Cult of Domesticity, The idea was to go back to Biblical roles, to separate men and women, Dalcher says, explaining that women were expected to conform in four ways piety, purity, submission and domesticity She adds that there is a modern version of the Cult of Domesticity active in the US right now the True Woman movement, part of a larger religious campaign called Revive Our Hearts From the Bookseller interview Vox is very much in line with the current boom in feminist dystopia novels and with those of the past as well What pops to mind are The Handmaid s Tale by Margaret Atwood, wonderfully realized in the Hulu series, Louise Erdrich s Future Home of the Living God, Hillary Jordan s When She Woke, and, of course, Ira Levin s The Stepford Wives There are plenty , but these are the ones I have read image from WikimediaDalcher brings to her novel a background in science She is a theoretical linguist, with a strong concern with how language affects development What would women become after a few generations of bearing the yoke of silence Is it ok to train your daughters to become, essentially, pets that double as sexual vessels Dalcher s love of things Italian is given a voice here, as Jean s parents are living in Italy, where Jean has spent considerable time, and a major character is Italian The story moves along at a nice pace, making this a pretty fast read It is engaging and stress inducing, in a good way But I found the resolution even unlikely than the underlying notion If tight plotting is your thing, you will probably be disappointed But then this is not, IMHO, about the action adventure element, as entertaining as that is It is a warning about the cost of silence, and how not speaking up now can shut you up later, to the detriment, not only of yourself, but of generations to come.Image from HappyGeek.comBefore the craziness becomes implemented policy, Jean is warned by her erstwhile bff, a prescient activist, about the coming madness, particularly the massive importance of voting, and participating in political action like calling one s representatives, or showing up for marches Think about what you need to do to stay free, she says It s good advice.Use your words.Review posted June 1 ,2018Publication August 21, 2018Berkley provided an advance review copy, but shhhhh, don t tell anyone EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author s personal, Twitter, Instagram, and FB pagesOther work by the author The Things I Learned About Swans Company ManThere are scads on her siteInterview May 11, 2018 BooksellerExcerpt from Time magazineOther Language Log on the truth about the difference between how many words men and women speak per day An Invented Statistic Returns

These days my country consists of states united in hate At its helm is a man child A bully consumed by power, lacking intellect, as well as being morally and ethically deficient So while the premise of Vox is extreme it doesn t seem far fetched The severe subjugation of women by the angry, white, extremist Christian patriarchy is portrayed at its most monstrous A counter worn by women allows them to speak when spoken to and then only minimally Once the allotted one hundred words per day are spent, negative reinforcement is administered to the offending female in the form of a painful shock Other than these few words, women are not allowed any other form of communication no email, snail mail, books, pens, or internet access And, nonverbal communication is not permitted which is monitored by surveillance cameras The gay community is relegated to working farms concentration camps , a teenage son is indoctrinated into the tenets of male supremacy and a six year old daughter s words vanish This dystopian novel deftly handles politics of all stripes gender, sexual, domestic and, to a lesser degree, racial and international Gone are the days of inclusion, tolerance and attempts at harmony Oh wait We re sort of there, aren t we

oooh, goodreads choice awards semifinalist for best science fiction 2018 what will happen What do they study now, our girls A bit of addition and subtraction, telling time, making change Counting, of course They would learn counting first All the way up to one hundred.as a thought piece, i would give this a high four stars, but as a novel, it s got some structural flaws it would be a very good book club choice, however plenty of food for thought and discussion it just needs some conceptual tightening it s missing that extra spark that would bring it all up into amazing debut territory the basic premise is straightforward it s a near future dystopia in which white christian conservative male fundies have come to power and figured out how to keep all of us hysterical, mouthy women down a metal word counter shackled around the female wrist that delivers an electric shock, of increasing intensity, for every word spoken that exceeds a woman s daily allotment of 100 along with that, all typical dysto rules apply homosexuals are imprisoned until they come around and choose heterosexuality, premarital and extramarital sex has heavy consequences for women , women aren t allowed to read or write or work or use birth control or even collect the mail from their own mailboxes, and cameras are everywhere making sure these rules are followed.this book is two things it s a cautionary tale about noninvolvement nonparticipation, about ignoring the signs and the trends until it s too late, and it s also an author with a doctorate in theoretical linguistics having herself a what if party about excising language from 1 2 of the population it s telling the story it wants to tell, and that s not the story of how this happens that s touched upon, sure, it s not altogether absent, but it s not a priority this takes place about a year after the laws go into effect, and things have happened quickly there are lots of questions left unanswered because again the hows and the details are not the concern here i m not sure what rules apply to deaf women, but i know that hearing women are not allowed to use any sign language to supplement their daily word allotment i m also not sure what is determining or tabulating these word counts at one point, the main character has one word left in her quota, and she speaks it to her daughter, Goodnight, which i would have counted as two words and what about hyphenates acronyms there must be workarounds but those are my concerns and what i would address if i were writing this book, but i am too lazy so i don t get to bitch about an author not answering every question i have as a reader.what i found most interesting was the effect upon the children former cognitive linguist wife mother first person narrator jean mclellan has four children eleven year old twin boys, a son about to graduate from high school, and a six year old daughter the twins are barely present, but the youngest and oldest are better developed, in how they respond to these regulations, how they are changed it s very effective and horrifying to see a little girl adjust and apply herself enthusiastically to the rules, as though it were a game, and to see a young man embrace his role of privileged enforcer the weaknesses are mostly in the conflict resolutions many of them are overcome too easily, too neatly personal ones, like what i will call patrick s acquiescence and scientific ones like what i will call, ummm look at the science i did just now oh, and final face off, too the blocking on that is still a bit muddled to me it s a solid debut definitely worth reading, it s just not a big shiny five star MUST READ an interesting aside although this was written before the second season of The Handmaid s Tale aired, there are than a few details that pop up in both neither of them make the future look super rosy for anyone come to my blog

Patrick never seemed to mind my weekly escapes, although he d joke about us sometimes, before there wasn t anything left to joke about We were, in his words, the voices that couldn t be hushed Well So much for the infallibility of Patrick I went into this knowing full well that the injustice that happens in this book would make me than just a little angry, but in fact Christina Dalcher s book made me so furious that I decided to steer clear of the dystopian science fiction genre for a while As it seems I just can t stomach fictional worlds like the one in this book and I don t know if that makes me a sissy or just a very compassionate human being lol I d like to believe I m the latter one but I m the first one to admit that I ve an extremely thin skin when it comes to wrongfulness Well, I guess there are worse things than a wish for justice and an allergy to its counterpart, right Still, the injustice wasn t the only topic that rubbed me the wrong way and it s due to those many other issues that I couldn t give the book than 3 stars Maybe I m just not made for the dystopian genre but the way those stories are told always feels slightly detached At least to me it does I should have screamed and felt with the MC and part of me did when I read what happened to Jean and how her boys especially Steven treated her, but despite the injustice that got me boiling I still didn t feel all too connected to the MC You think I should garden and cook You think the work I do is less important than I don t know crafts Not you, Mom Other women The ones who just wanna get out of the house and have some kind of identity So you might say that I got angry because of the books circumstances but not because of Jean Does that make sense lol Anyway if we re already talking about things I had issues with, I might as well mention that I was unhappy about the use of religion to justify what happened Sure, you might say that people did and still do a lot of wrong things in the name of religion and to use it as a tool in order to create a dystopian world is nothing new Agreed In fact it s been done so often that I can t read it any I heard voices that said Dalcher is dragging Christianity in the mud and I heard voices that said it was a well developed plot device As for me Honest answer I m just tired of authors using religion as a tool in order to paint a picture of their dystopian world I read 3 dystopian books this year and all of them had a religious motive No matter if it was Station Eleven , The Power or Vox they all used it and I m probably the only person who s not happy with that lol I guess I just want diversity and unique ideas in my dystopians as well shrugs Of course, there aren t any two mommy or two daddy families any the children of same sex partnerships have all been moved to live with their closest male relative an uncle, a grandfather, an older brother until the biological parent remarries in the proper way Sooo, did I already mention how angry and furious this book made me Yes Then let s move on I think the worst thing about Jean s situation was the fact that she had only hundred words to raise her children and that her boys as well as her husband seemed to be okay with that Of course they were, imagine how lovely your life could be if your mother had no way to reprimand you Gosh, I don t even want to think about it lol As the mom of a little rascal I know exactly what I m talking about and believe me, if I had only a 100 words my kid would do what it wants and cause havoc all day XD You need to talk with your kids, it s very important and with restricting women to only 100 words it s a wonder their world still worked _ It s a life choice, Mom, Steven said If you can choose one sexuality, you can just as easily choose another That s all they re trying to do Urgh, do I even have to mention how wrong this sentence is I really didn t like Steven and even though he was just a kid I still think that he did a lot of horrible and bad things Poor Jean As for the plot, I believe the idea was a good one but for me it lacked finesse in the execution There were so many things that made no sense and left me with even questions and the way the ending was resolved was so convenient that I couldn t help myself and actually said What That s it when I finished the final page To me it feels like there went a lot of energy into explaining the circumstances and the way life felt like for the MC and the other women in the book, but there was hardly any effort put into explaining how the men lived What they did, if they were okay with their women being silenced If they struggled with this change too Throughout the entire book we just get one side of the coin and I still ask myself the question Why did they even decide that the words of women should be counted To make them docile and obedient Is that really the only motive I have no clue where Dalcher wanted to go with this book, what the government actually planned to do or where the plot was supposed to head and this left me even confused I m sure some of you who read the book will say Why It s so logical And if you are one of those people please feel free to enlighten me in the comments I d really appreciate some input there because for me it made no sense how it all ended Especially the cure and elicitor aspect at the end of the book What for Only women or men as well Why take such drastic measures I ve the same feeling I had after finishing the TV series Lost I don t understand the ending lol Conclusion Vox had some good ideas and they certainly brought a breath of fresh air to the dystopian genre, the longer I read the I got confused though The plot was thin and had quite some weaknesses I couldn t overlook and the ending well let s just say it was way too convenient to be true view spoiler How practical that Jeans husband Patrick died and she could ride into the sunset with her kids and her lover Lorenzo shakes head hide spoiler

a quick google search will show that women speak an average of 20,000 words per day so imagine if you were limited to only 100.pretty unfathomable thought, right that is exactly why i love dystopian novels they are the most effective at taking me outside of my bubble, placing me in an unfamiliar situation and making me really think, what would i do if this was me this book raises so many important and relevant questions in regards to female rights and equality, the role of religion in government, and the right to speech language development the premise and core themes of this book are extremely thought provoking as a thought piece, this book deserves all the stars.but as a novel, i cant give this than three the writing in this is very clinical and straightforward dalcher doesnt write like an author, she writes like a scientist which isnt surprising considering her profession as a linguistics researcher that sure came in handy as the majority of the plot focuses on the main characters job as a linguistics researcher write what you know, eh but i couldnt find any sort of flow, character development, fleshing out of plot ideas, no sort of voice or depth everything felt very two dimensional, very surface level i mean, the ideas were there and they were fantastic ideas but the execution left much to be desired i would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a dystopian book that will plant a little seed of thought into their brain, but just dont expect too much from this in regards to storytelling 3 stars

This novel depicts a chilling dystopia, or as Mike Pence might call it a visionary blue print for America Women are limited to speaking only 100 words per day and immoral behavior results in hard labor concentration camps The author does a great job of setting up the world with thinly veiled references to our current political climate There is a clear message to receive if you don t speak out, someday someone will take away your voice Either figuratively or literally.After the initial setup, the story transitions into a typical race against time thriller Unfortunately that s where I also started to lose interest The premise is fantastic, but the espionage was cheesy and not particularly well written For one the cast of villains aren t bombastic enough or interesting enough There s an evil minister who goes around punishing people but he felt hokey and his position didn t always make sense.Overall what probably started as a symbolic anti Trump rant turned into surprisingly effective allegorical fiction I wish the author had spent time on the final third of the book, though, because it left a lot to be desired Still a solid, quick read that kept me turning the pages.